Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise appearance to celebrate the groundbreaking of its new Reno warehouse, reports the Reno Gazette Journal. Cook's appearance alongside Gov. Brian Sandoval and Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve was confirmed just hours prior to the event.

“Reno plays an incredibly important role in the products and services that we provide our customers worldwide,” Cook said. “Without the data center here, none of this would be possible.”

The downtown facility will reportedly be used for shipping and receiving, supporting Apple's large data center just east of Reno-Sparks. The warehouse is located at Evans Avenue and Sixth Street. Apple had to build the facility to quality for all its $89 million in tax abatements negotiated with state and local governments.

Steve Hill, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, credits Apple's arrival for kickstarting the arrival of various big name businesses including Tesla and its $5 billion Gigafactory, and Switch, who is building the world's largest data center campus at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. Google has also bought land at the same industrial park, indicating it may also build a data center there.

“If someone told me six years ago about the progress this city would make and the opportunities it would have moving forward, I would have taken that as an outcome that we couldn’t have expected to be better,” Hill said.